The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1887-03-02
American Brains in American
Hands"
DR.. MAYo's CONCLUDING LEcTUkE IN
COLUMBUS.

COLUMBUS.
Phonetic Report for The CLARION, by Mis-
Leanelia Beden. pupil Of the Industrial fnsii
tute and College.
Ladies and Gentlemen: You have hearC
a great deal nova days of what Is callet
Industrial Education" The press il
full of it; all school friends are exercised
by it. A great variety of schools are
being organized on that idea. Some en-
thusiastic advocates of 1t declare tha
all education in the past has been {
failure; that the soil has to be rubbed
off, and an entirely new departure to bt
taken in education. Unfortunately, II
is very difficult Tor anybody In thi:
world to take up one good thing without
dropping another good thing. Enthusl
astic, but iDjudicious advocates OF this
education, pushing their claims to In.
justice of the other, will be shown the
other extreme. What has been lmper
feet in the past in the training OF chill
dren, / do not propose this evening to
show. Education in the past has been
no more imperfect than anything else
in the past) On the philanthropic sub
industrial pursuits in life, | will speak
to yOu-to be in no respect thorough
and exhaustive treatment OF H. 1 VIII
merely give some idea OF the necessity
for what is called industrial training
in connection with education, and try
to explain how this desire and demand
for it has come up in our national llfe-
Then, perhaps, what is more useful, to
show you young ladies who may 60
forth from here to be teachers, how, IN
ordinary school work, you can keep this
idea in mind, to help in the work SO
well begun here.
Now the reason you have such a
demand for industry in connection with
school work: Education in the past has
10 be partial failure; nothing has been
perfect; there is no evidence to show
more failure in education than In any
thing else; for example, there are tail-
ures in the church, failures in states
manship, failures in business; often, at
least eighty-fOur persons out OF hum
dred who embark in business fail once
or more. The failure of education In
the past is no reason for this demand
| for industrial education. The reason Is
that the world is going forward; that
+ the education of the past has developed
new arts and new states of society; more
extensive views than, perhaps, was ever
anticipated at any previous period.
This is why our country is Just now
calling for new development and expan
sion in education. Let me call to mind
the stream of labor-saving inventions
which have come upon our country In
the past seventy-fve years. We are
| Just through a great civil war which
will figure In history as the most 1mpor-
tant by far than the most gigantic con-
vulsion in modern times. Nobody can
understand the great results that war
brought to the Union. You are mis-
taken if you suppose the South has
changed more than any other State
Massachusetts is another kind OF State
from that of my youth, as Mississippi
mas been. New York itself has been
changed in every part of the country.
But great as has been the result of this
gigantic civil war, it does not compare
with the great revolution which has
been going on in the past seventy-five
years, in the radical relation of life.
The proof of this revolution you will
find in the homes of the present times
like chambers of magic. Ii you walk
through the rooms you see IN every
thing around what wonderful iurch
forward the age has made. Well may
we see the results of that lurch forward
in the region of scientific discovery; In
the application of science to modern
life; in the invention of labor-savlng
machinery. We can never know all the
results in labor and civilization. The
whole height of American life which
has come from invention Is stored In the
Patent Office at Washington. Many OF
these inventions have multiplied the
productions of our people by ten, fifty,
one hundred or thousand. If the men
of the u. S. would take the part OF in
telhgent workers, and work with the
aid of labor saving machinery, at present
in the patent Office, at Washington, 1T
would be equal to multiplying our pop
ulation by nifty or hundred or thou
sand-to populating the country with
hundreds of millions of workers, instead
of fifty millions of people who now
occupy the soil.
Now this change has been been so
gradual that people have no knowledge,
Eardly an impression of 1t. l can re-
member the time my father first came
home from Boston, and told the people
gathered around him in the store OF his
nrst ride on the railroad. The story
sounded as marvellous as anything IN
the Arabian Nights. From that time to
this great inventions have been going on
so rapidly, that we almost forget that
we are living in an age of miracles.
Our people to-day are doing things
which our grandmothers and grand
fathers would no more have done than
have wrought one of the miracles In the
New Testament.
ct me illustrate some of these
changes that have gone on with the IN
PRODUCTION of labor-saving machinery. A
few years ago as was travelling through
Belgium, which | suppose is the most
carefully cultivated part OF Europe,
saw how the peasant women of Belgium
were cultivating that land. The land is
cultivated so well because it is small
country; people crowded together like
flies on an exposed dinner table. Hard
ly room enough for men and women to
keep up life. As We passed along the
country, ] saw how those women were
engaged. The women were cultivating
/
scratching. Then there we're women
harnessed in carts with dogs. Then Uo-
men pitching hay; the women doing
this, while the great lubber OF man
was doing nothing but arranging the
hay on top of the wagon, doubtless con-
templating the superiority OF man over
woman. That's the old way of cultivat-
ing the land.
In Southwestern Ohio l remembered
that young man had married the
daughter of one of these very German
women; he was a farmer out there. so
in travelling through the country kept
lookout for my friends. caught sight
of her at work according to the new
ideas of labor. She was in very pecu-
| liar position, illustrating woman's po
sitien in the new age. She and her new
husband were engaged in moving hay.
She was dressed in a very appropriate
costume, appropriate to what she was
doing. She was driving a spanking
team of horses, her husband sitting by
her side reading, while the grass was
falling from under the mower without
any work of theirs. This shows the diff
ference of woman's position in the new
idea of labor. Perhaps In Belgium that
very woman's mother was scratching
the ground like hen. In America the
daughter was cutting hay and doing
more in ten minutes than the mother
could do in day.
Another illustration: Three years
ago, was travelling in Florida. My
! friends took me out in the country. 1t
was about time for fertilizing the land.
| saw how the ignorant colored women
we're attempting to do tlat. Perhaps q
hund rad of these women were passin o.